Number one, my living room and kitchen ceilings have that old fashioned cottage cheese looking stuff blasted on it, very hard to keep clean, cobwebs are very hard to get off of it, how do I make it where it’s not so rough or just get rid of it all together?
Number two. I want a screened in front porch or deck really bad, I am pretty sure I can’t afford a wood deck so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about what I could use for a floor for a screened in porch, I know cement is an option but it costs a cubic yard, does anyone know of any inexpensive ideas for a floor, the porch is going to wrap around and will be a total of 84 feet long, 7 feet wide, I thought about making a frame for concrete and maybe filling it in with something before I get the concrete, that would make the concrete cheaper…any ideas?
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Scraping that ceiling is not difficult, just time consuming. A scraper and spray bottle of water and you can get the texture off. Follow the link below for complete information.
As far as your porch. If you go with concrete, they will fill the area with fill dirt up to within 4-6 inches of the top and then pour concrete those final 4-6 inches only.
The cottage cheese you’re referring to is whats called "pop-corn ceiling" The only way to get rid of it is to scrape it off. It is usually a messy, dirty job.
84 feet is a fairly large job and there’s no way out of it. It will be expensive even with materials alone! Wood should be your cheapest alternative, I wouldn’t try fiddle around making cheap concrete as it’ll cause you more pain and $$
1)This is messy, but it works:
Wet the cottage cheese (it’s actually called a popcorn ceiling) & scrape the goo off. Use a wide trowel.Get off as much as you can & then you can wipe off the rest. Beware, though.Many builders use popcorn to hide blemishes in the drywall.You may need to re-float the ceiling after wards or at least roll on a smoother texture.
2) Use washed gravel. Unwashed gravel is dusty. You’ll save a lot of headaches if the gravel is washed first.Use larger gravel. also, when you are ready to fill in w/concrete, you can use the gravel in the concrete mix.
I would install 3/4" furring strips to the cieling and install new sheetrock over that, less mess.